Over half a century ago, Lao PDR began its journey to become a modern nation and committed itself to long-term development ambitions. It has delivered electricity, schools, roads, and has become an important energy exporter.
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Protecting a Global Public Good with Information and Innovation“Natural resource law enforcement is a global public good and not enough is being done in this area,” says William Magrath, Lead Natural... Show More + Resources Economist, The World Bank. “Many of the most damaging environmental crimes involve transnational activities, such as smuggling, where the effectiveness of the authorities in any one country is inherently limited. There are big gaps when it comes to financing, policy and capacity, which is why the environment sector in developing countries is more vulnerable to crime than other sectors and international cooperation is essential."The Bank actively identifies investment and policy reform needs so that it can help fill the gaps. Because there is little information on wildlife crimes and networks, the Bank is funding the ICCWC’s work to establish a mechanism for criminal intelligence. To address the lack of country data, the ICCWC’s analysis of wildlife law enforcement Show Less -

Bank Group ContributionOver the past decade, the Bank (IBRD/IDA) committed funding for US$33 billion, from which IDA’s contribution was US$7.7 billion (23 percent) to support investment in environment... Show More + and natural resource management (ENRM). By far, climate change has been the fastest growing ENRM area where the Bank is supporting client countries. Other areas that have significantly expanded in the last five years are environmental policy and institutions, and water resource management. As for the types of funding provided over the decade, development policy lending accounted for 30 percent and investment lending 70 percent of the Bank’s ENRM portfolio. The trend is in favor of development policy lending that increased to 33% of the ENRM portfolio in the last five years (FY09-13).In addition to funding ENRM projects directly, IDA has leveraged additional funds through the Global Environment Facility (GEF) and other agencies and organizations. Specifically, the GEF provides grants to ID Show Less -

February 24, 2012 - The World Bank issued an SOS Friday on the state of the world's oceans and announced the formation of a powerful coalition to confront the ocean's growing number of overexploited fisheries,... Show More + more than 400 "dead zones" where most marine life cannot survive, and the loss of important ecosystems to coastal development.In a speech – "A New S-O-S: Save Our Seas"-- at the World Oceans Summit in Singapore, World Bank President Robert Zoellick said the new Global Partnership for Oceans would tap the experience and knowledge of multiple organizations, and leverage financing, projects, and programs in developing countries to better manage the ocean and its resources."The world's oceans are in danger, and the enormity of the challenge is bigger than one country or organization," said Robert Zoellick, president of the World Bank Group, one of the new coalition's partners."We need coordinated global action to restore our oceans to he Show Less -